<p>first, thanks !
second, haha yes I did mean lack of interest, not disinterestedness. i was kind of trying to get at this: are people interested in academics a lot (vague, i know) and if so, do they show it? or are they not relatively absorbed in academic things? if they are interested, do they feign or put on a facade that they aren't interested (like, say in HS, a kid who has a 4.0 and takes all kinds of extra history electives, but when asked about it, acts as though he doesn't care about history and the class is annoying, or something)</p>
<p>My impression from the outside as a parent is that students are proud of their achievements and abilities but don't necessarily make a fuss about them. That is not at all the same as high school students pretending to find classes annoying because it isn't cool to be smart. Rather, it is is a reflection of students who have found a good balance between different parts of their lives and respect both themselves and others for the different strengths they bring to the community. Davidson students, like students at many colleges, are good at lots of different things. In high school they are likely to have been stars. At Davidson they are part of a constellation.</p>
<p>I hesitate to fall into stereotypical shorthand or group schools based on standards, but I'd say Davidson is one of the happy smart-kid schools. Keep in mind too that even though it's small, it's not monolithic. You have gotten some interesting insights from a poster who appears to be a very enthusiastic first-year student. Every person and every year will bring new and sometimes different perspectives, but overall, the theme you will probably experience is hard work together with strong sense of community, and real academic and intellectual achievement lightened by a sense that life is also meant to be fun.</p>
<p>Wellllllll...people do complain about the work a good bit. We're certainly a college of whiners, at times. But I don't think that reflects a dislike of the material, nor do people pretend to hate their classes because liking them would be "uncool" or anything stupid like that. I think mostly people are just complaining about having to work so hard just to PASS the class.</p>